U.S. must look in mirror to see how Mideast sees us

ANOTHER VIEW

September 13, 2006|By Tom Makoul, Special to The Morning Call - Freelance

God could have created a better world than this one, what with all the strife and conflict and the ways we treat each other. Endowed with free will and intelligence, we can shape our lives to our benefit, or sentence ourselves to a miserable existence from the poisoned fruit of our wrong actions. But, as we are held accountable for our decisions, does this world become the product of our collective sins?

Our depth of sovereignty amounts to whether we allow anyone to rule us against our will. A majority of people in this country disagree with the major policies of the president. As most of the world lines up against us, we are led down a path threatening our very survival. Even in England, our closest ally, only 14 percent of Britons believe U.S. foreign policy should be followed.

Russia signs an arms pact with Venezuela, then Venezuela aligns with Iran and Cuba; Iran lines up with North Korea, and China stands in the shadows, dealing favors to whoever needs help. Then, after the huge investment we have made in Iraq with American lives and treasury, tens of thousands of Iraqis take to the streets in Baghdad to chant "death to America, death to Israel," and all President George Bush can say is he doesn't understand why.

The Founding Fathers intended our government to protect us from attack from other nations or individuals, but the neocons in the White House and their Republican Congress invite attacks with their clubfooted policies. They keep us in line by beating the drums of war, and as mid-term elections approach, expect to scare us into voting for them again.

The media are no help either. By their nature, they are alarmists, scaring us even further. To keep themselves interesting, they always make as much of every occurrence as possible, sometimes resembling little dogs who as soon as anything moves, start barking loudly. It is important not to pay too much attention to them, as they are simply a magnifying glass of our actions.

The mistake we keep repeating is not understanding that when someone suffers an injustice, it is natural to thirst for retribution. We have gone from a nation that offers hope to one that exports "schadenfreude," encouraging the new enemies emerging every day to take pleasure in our discomfort. It has become our number one product.

Our lopsided support of Israel, which has violated a record 138 U.N. resolutions as it went to war over Lebanon's violation of one, has shattered any illusion we ever had of protecting human rights. Why did we even take sides in this conflict? Why not a more balanced approach, as every president previous to this one has taken, without incorporating Old Testament teachings into our foreign policy, as this one does?

My priorities are in proper order: God, family, country, friends and ethnic heritage. Although I am a Christian Arab-American, I am an American first, and will always put the interests of this nation before the land of my ancestors. There are a lot of people in this country who need to do the same. Turn on talk radio, television, or read newspapers, and you will find people brainwashing you into believing Arabs are the terrorists and Israel is only defending itself. When these people put the welfare of Israel before the welfare of this country, they do all Americans a disservice.

We should be allowed to make up our own minds in an intelligent manner, free of being called "anti-semitic" whenever Israeli intentions are questioned. Of course, being more of a Semite than many Jewish people, it would be difficult to accuse me of that. I believe in Israel's right to exist, and I think the number one mistake Iran, Hezbollah or Hamas makes is calling for its destruction. It is at that point reasonable people close their ears to whatever valid argument might actually exist.

We all need to take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror. While we are willing to let the aspirations and hopes of other people around the world go down the drain, we desperately try to save our own. Why, despite all the mirrors we possess, do we not know what we really look like?

Tom Makoul of Allentown is an entertainment producer and public relations specialist.